Paranormal Activities

On Saturday afternoon I went to a very cute little bookstore called The King’s English to meet my new favorite author, Kiersten White.  She’s been on my list of favorite people since I was in 5th grade, but now she is in the big leagues.  And she deserves to be there.  Her debut novel Paranormalcy was released just two weeks ago and already she is #7 on the New York Times Bestseller list for children’s literature.  Awesome, right!  Yes.

[ Come on, isn’t that cover awesome?  Way better than any Nicholas Sparks* book. ]

Kiersten is on a booksigning tour right now and I was so glad I could make it to see her.  I read her book last weekend and it was one of the most entertaining few hours of my life.    I started reading Paranormalcy about 1 in the morning and finished before I went to sleep a few hours later.  I couldn’t put it down, and didn’t want to.  (You can read the first 70 pages online for free here.)  I could tell you a lot of favorite things about the book, how I loved each character, how she allows herself to be funny and sarcastic and hilarious, how she writes a great make-out scene, how she pokes fun at Twilight, and how I recognize my own little bits of highschool life all weaved in there.

[ heidikins, me and author Kiersten White ]

But my very most very favorite part of the book is on page 211, top right side.  “I could have used a shower, too, not to mention some makeup.  My eyelashes were as blond as my hair; without mascara I felt like a five-year-old.”  That is me and my twin sister,  heidikins.  No, literally, it is.  We went to school with Kiersten and on Saturday she told that whole group of adoring fans that these two sentences were directly inspired by us.  I was beaming.  Of course that might also have been the sun reflecting off my blond hair, I can’t be sure.

Being the adoring fan that I am, I made pink cupcakes to take to her at the booksigning.  But I misplanned my time so my sister and I ended up postponing lunch so we could frost them in the backseat of the car with a bamboo skewer while hanging out in the bookstore parking lot.  I also made little baby Paranormalcy books to stick in the top of each one, which I cut out, and glued together in the front seat with my handy traveling craft kit, while heidikins wielded the skewers and frosting in the back.  It was comical to say the least.  And I took some pictures of the whole crazy process, but for whatever reason (ahem, mostly due to the fact that we were doing all of this in the backseat of the car…) they turned out beyond awful, out of focus and terribly fuzzy.  So you’ll just have to take my word for it.  The cupcakes however, were divine.

You should give Paranormalcy a try, and I’m not just saying that because she is my friend.  It was one of the funniest books I’ve read ever.  So, go read the first 70 pages for free, and then you can decide.  Me, my sister and the cupcakes all agree that it is fantastic.

*Kim R. that’s for you. Ha!